Image: Mark Avellino
In the ecstasy and jubilation that followed Damian Iaconis’ dramatic 95th minute promotion-winning equaliser against Brunswick City, one image resonates more than any of the other wild and passionate acts on display. Kingston City president Con Nitsikas and manager Nick Tolios embrace as the emotion gets the better of the two, with tears flowing down the latter’s face in disbelief at the achievement for a club whose very existence was under threat only a few years ago.
While the humble suburban surrounds of Dunstan Reserve are a long way from the football cathedrals which often evoke such scenes, for a brief moment in time the Peacock Street venue was Kingston’s very own Wembley, Stadio Olimpico and Maracana all rolled into one as the champagne corks began to pop.
The 34-year-old is the youngest Melbourne-based senior NPL coach and it is often hard to believe he is only into his fourth year of senior management having recently hung up the boots in 2012. Back then City were competing in the third tier of state football after winning promotion from the fourth tier in 2011, with Tolios captain of a side coached by Nitsikas.
For a while it seemed the financial hardships that plagued the club following its time in the VPL in 2006-07 would lead to its unfortunate demises, with debts totalling a six figure sum. No one would have been more devastated by those turns of events than Tolios, whose affinity with the Clayton-South based club began way back in the 1980s.
“I grew up at the club. I lived a street away at Monash Crescent and could see the stadium lights,” Tolios said.
“Every time I’d hear a whistle I would go to the ground and for me to get them back into the top flight as a manger is amazing. You would have seen a photo of me with Con post-game Brunswick and it was pretty hard as I couldn’t hold the emotion in, especially the way it happened. I think we worked too hard in keeping touch with Thunder, and to let it all go away in the last game I thought would have been heartbreaking.”
For 26 consecutive weeks, Kingston had been playing catch-up to Huss Skenderovic’s table-topping side, with consecutive mid-season home defeats to an Atilla Ofli-inspired Whittlesea and the Eastern Lions handing their rivals an almost unassailable lead at the top.
However, City persisted and chased Dandenong down to the wire, before peaking at the right time to overtake them on top ahead of the final round. The equation was simple, with Kingston needing only a draw away to Brunswick to seal automatic promotion to the top-flight for the first time in almost a decade.
Spartans attacker Jose Portillo looked to have derailed that aim as his first half strike had the hosts ahead, with Kingston further burdened by the loss of star playmaker Velibor Mitrovic through a broken jaw sustained in the opening half hour. His replacement Damian Iaconis had missed a gilt-edged opportunity three weeks prior to put his side ahead against the St Albans Saints, a game Tolios’ outfit would lose 3-1.
Early into the second half and the 19-year-old was presented with an opportunity to redeem himself after spending the subsequent two weeks on the sidelines through an injury. The former South Springvale forward failed to make the desired connection as his shot was easily gathered into the arms of the opposition goalkeeper.
The Thunder had done their bit of the business by dispatching rivals Springvale 2-0, and if proceedings at Dunstan Reserve stayed the same, were on track for an immediate return to the NPL.
And so the game goes into the 95th minute as Kingston threw numbers into the box, with Nick Stamatiou sending in one desperate punt across the goal area to the back post where Iaconis prepares rises highest to meet the ball. On the sidelines, Tolios begins to think the worst and wonders how to prepare his side for the promotion play-off.
“I started to think on what I was going to tell the players to get them up for the last couple of play-off games, and even when Stama put the cross in I’ve thought to myself that wasn’t a great cross and turned around and said to the bench that he should’ve taken a touch. As I’ve turned back around Damian scored and the rest of it is pretty much history, as I can’t remember too much onwards from there.”
Ten years ago, little Kingston entered the top flight via a play-off and embarked on a quest to reach the pinnacle of Victorian football under George Katsakis. The club spent big in signing ex-NSL stars Michael Curcija, Joe Spiteri, Alex Kiratzoglou and Marcus Stergiopoulos, joining recently released A-League players Michael Turnbull and Xiaobin Zhang at the Grange Reserve. Tolios himself had returned to his childhood club after moving from Oakleigh. A fifth place finish and an immediate finals exit at the hands of Heidelberg United saw that dream ended, with their former centre-back reflecting on that campaign.
“It was hard as the club at the time were pretty excited after going up through a playoff and then went on and recruited some great players, which included some former NSL players, but something happened and it didn’t click,” Tolios said.
“One thing I’ve learned in my short time of coaching is that you need to have a squad, a good atmosphere and a good culture, and in hindsight that was hardest thing for us at the time. It wasn’t a case of us not getting along well, but rather the feeling of playing for the shirt, playing for the club and having some meaning behind it, which is what I thought brought us down.”
From there onwards, Kingston’s slide down the Victorian football pyramid began as relegation from the VPL in 2007 followed under Dean Hennessey, before two subsequent demotions saw them begin life in the new decade in the fourth tier. Tolios returned to the club that year after spells with the Western Suburbs and Bentleigh respectively, and credits a small group of hard-working individuals for getting the club back into Victoria’s premier football competition.
“The club got itself in a position where financially they started dropping a lot of money, players started leaving and it’s the same old scenario that you see with a lot of clubs. Credit must go to Jim Lambropoulos and Con Nitsikas because they got the club up from the fourth tier and I know they spent a lot of time on bringing people like me back to the club before we got promoted into the third tier and from then on it was a dream to get into the NPL,” he said.
“We knew that we had the facilities to do it but not the set-up, as we only had one junior team at the time and they put a team together within the last six-seven weeks to get every junior team to comply with the NPL standards, and from then on it was purely getting a squad together and that was my goal. We had a four-year plan that I set aside and it was hard because I had to get rid of players I played with while keeping a few players.
“We then started bringing in young players who we knew we could work with, but we also brought in players who had played senior football whether at VPL or State League level but they were seasoned, stronger-bodied boys. In the last year we decided to bring in players who have had that NPL pedigree to give us that experience. I’ve said it since day one that it was our squad which got us over the line and we needed against Brunswick, and also against St Albans, where we had five boys out, a few sitting on the bench and three young kids that deserve every opportunity they got.”
While much of the praise and attention is directed to the senior side, Tolios gives credit to the junior set-up at the club while also emphasising the importance of setting the goal of promotion on the senior team when pre-season training began late last year in Frankston.
“It’s important and that was the message I said to the guys when bringing them down here. I told them that we aren’t here to make up the numbers this year and this was the fourth season that I’ve been here as manager and the goal was to get promoted.
“We wanted to finish in the top two while also ensuring stability in the junior ranks, which was a massive priority. I don’t think people give credit to the fact that we’ve worked super hard in the background to get our juniors right and you see that with each passing year that they are starting to compete with some of the bigger teams. It’s hard given the fact that we have Oakleigh, Bentleigh and the two Dandenong clubs in the same vicinity and they all have good junior set-ups, so to be able to compete with them is not easy but I feel like we’ve done that.”
Integral to the success of any head coach/manager is a good assistant coach that is able to complement the senior figure and make up for any limitations he has. The most notable example in world football was the partnership between former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough and his long-time assistant Peter Taylor.
At Kingston, former Oakleigh Cannons manager Bill Theodoropoulos occupies the role of the Taylor, and despite having more senior coaching experience than his younger superior, Tolios gives plenty of credit to his assistant and the rest of the coaching staff on the work they have done over the course of the campaign.
“I’ve known Billy since I was a young kid and used to watch him play. To have someone like him come to the club with the experience that he’s had coaching at a higher level is something I’ve benefitted from.
“He’s helped me out mentally and I think that’s why we work so well together, as the boys know what Billy and I except from them but also know that we’re there to support them and help them – whether that’s with family and personal life, which plays a big role in what we do as mentors to them.
“He’s been fantastic, as has Con, Jim, Michael Iacomidis my team manager Lou Kastner, who people forget is an experienced person who’s been around a long time, and having guys to bounce off as I’m still pretty young and respect what they have to say to me and listen to learn. So I’m lucky to be surrounded by the likes of Billy and Lou and I couldn’t do it without them and especially the players.”
With four rounds of the season remaining, City hosted new NPL2 West league leaders the St Albans Saints as they looked to keep pace with the Thunder, who were due to play Werribee away the following day. A lethargic performance from the home side saw Dinamo prevail 3-1 as Thunder players and officials watched on, celebrating each Saints goal with the same enthusiasm as Samuel Catherine’s goal 24 hours later, which was enough to give the Dandenong South based side a three-point lead over City heading into the final three games – in addition to a superior goal difference totalling 30 goals.
Tolios was forced to console his dejected players post-game, who would have to do without injured Iaconis the following week, in addition to the loss of key midfielder Slaven Vranesevic who took on a late-season work project, and veteran forward Jerry Karpeh who departed the club to take up an offer with a Jordanian-based club. Despite these losses, Tolios was not willing to give up the fight as the under-strength Kingston visited George Andrews Reserve in what proved to be a Round 26 classic.
“Not once did I think the game was over and that Thunder had won the league. I knew that Thunder would drop points because, no disrespect to them, I feel that our squad as a whole was a lot stronger and it showed in the end when they lost Sakhizada in defence that they started leaking goals. They were always one or two injuries away from finding the going tougher.
“In the end, I didn’t have to motivate us as they are young boys that need to learn how to lose and learn to then try and find a way to bounce back.
“For me and Billy, nothing changed, as we still ran the boys at training and made them work hard, doing everything exactly the same and not changing it for any team we were playing. When they did things right and when they worked hard, there were many teams that couldn’t keep up with us when we were on song.
“In the end, I kept saying to them they just had to keep plugging away and it was different because up until the last week we were the team that was chasing, and in the end it a case of role-reversal as they were chasing us. To win it the way we did, a lot of these boys won’t forget it, I know I won’t and it was a great way to end it.”
In the end, that mentality paid off as Kingston recorded a famous 4-3 victory on enemy territory as a brace to Czech midfielder Zdenek Koukal, a stunner from the long-serving Stamatiou, and a winner from 20-year-old attacker Rowan McNamee saw Tolios’ troops claim a deserved triumph.
Within the dressing room, morale was always high with players determined to give their all for the red colours of Kingston. The average age of the squad was one of the youngest in the league, with the youthful enthusiasm carrying the side a long way throughout the season as a squad of players who had struggled with consistency throughout much of their careers ended 2016 in career-best form.
When asked what is it about Tolios and Theodoropoulos that brings the best out of players, one former Kingston squad member said “they make you feel like a millions bucks”. The 34-year-old admits that developing a good dressing room culture was always going to be a key ingredient of success at The Grange Reserve.
“When players are happy, you get the most out of them. When players enjoy what they do, you get the most out of them, and I think that’s what we did. But it wasn’t that hard to do that. There were times over the course of the season where the boys were down and missed out on the opportunities to race ahead ourselves,” he said.
“Naturally they were disappointed but you’ve got to learn from that – like I touched on before – but they’re a fantastic bunch of boys. Unfortunately, there are going to be teams who are going to try and come after our players and there are also going to be some guys who probably won’t be able to make that next step.
“Regardless of what happens, they’ll be walking down the street one day and have that connection that they won the league together and it was purely because of the camaraderie we had, the work-rate they had for one another, and the atmosphere we created in the change rooms was fantastic.
“Again, I can’t thank them enough as they have given me the accolade of NPL2 Coach of the Year, because without them I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I have, so it was great.”
In his playing career, Tolios made his senior debut in the NSL with Carlton aged just 16 and was part of Eddie Krncevic’s side which featured an abundance of young talent such as Mark Bresciano, Simon Colosimo, Vince Grella and Archie Thompson.
Subsequent overseas adventures at Aston Villa and AEK Athens followed, before returning to Melbourne in 2000 by joining South Melbourne, where he would spend the next four years of his career at. 42 appearances for Hellas yielded two goals for the defender.
He returned to the redeveloped Lakeside Stadium recently to lead Kingston to a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 victory against West winners Dinamo in the NPL2 Grand Final to cap off a magnificent season, which two nights before saw him crowned as NPL2 Coach of the Year at FFV Gold Medal Night.
Tolios now turns his attention towards planning ahead for next year and ensuring Kingston’s top flight presence.
“As a player, I was lucky enough to play and train at a young age with some of the best players to play in this country. When I was 16 years old I was lucky to be training with the first-team at Carlton, and one of the things we had in that short period of time at that club was that we had a good bond,” he said.
“At South too we had an unbelievable bond, and to this day I’m mates with a lot of those players, and we had success so I think you can see that when you have a good atmosphere and a good bunch of boys who see themselves as mates first and foremost, you’d do anything you can to try and help them throughout the year – whether they are down or up, you try and support them.
“Now we’ve already started working towards next year to try and ensure we stay up and not go straight down. It’s going to be a good journey and we’re looking forward to that. We want to try and keep as many of these boys as we can. Obviously we know that we need to strengthen in some areas, but everyone who is there is going to have an opportunity and I owe it to them. That was the message from day one that they will have an opportunity, it’s now up to them whether they take it or not.”